The subject matter disclosed herein relates to gauges used for measuring gaps or clearances, and more particularly to digital feeler gauges for measuring, recording, and/or transmitting gap or clearance data.
Feeler gauges are widely used in many industrial settings. For instance, feeler gauges may be used in coupled rotating equipment such as gas, steam, wind, and hydro turbine systems, to precisely measure gaps or clearances. The accuracy of measurements of gaps and clearances may be particularly important. For example, regular maintenance, vibration mitigation, and process optimization in the gas turbine systems and other industrial settings may rely heavily on accuracy of measurements of such gaps or clearances. The feeler gauge is typically a hand-held device having several stacked, elongated feeler blades, having a variety of thicknesses. One or more of the feeler blades may be extended into a measuring position and used to measure the thickness of a gap or clearance. The measurement is then typically determined and recorded by the user of the feeler gauge. The manual nature of typical feeler gauges leaves room for human error in measuring, recording, and relaying the gap information and does not enable quick electronic access to current and trending gap data. Moreover, human error may occur when a wrong gap or clearance is measured, with possibly costly consequences for the next working step.